A Hindu trader in a market in Northern India once asked a Christian native: “What medicine do you put on your face to make it shine so?”
“I don’t put anything on it,” was the Christian’s reply.
“Yes, you do,” persisted the trader. “All you Christians do; I’ve seen it in Ahmedabad, and Surat, and I’ve seen it in Bombay.”
The convert laughed in the gladness of his heart as he replied, “Yes, I’ll tell you the medicine; it is happiness of heart.”
Yes, no outward application on the face could have put that shining expression upon the countenance that struck the trader. Reformation cannot effect this. Outward reformation can only—like waxworks—produce a resemblance. But it cannot be mistaken for the real article by those who know.
And the shining face is not only to be seen in India. It bears transplanting. A returned China missionary, known well to the writer by sight, was named “Glory” by the natives because he had the shining face! It has borne transplanting, for he has it still, as all who see him can testify.
No; only an inward medicine can produce the shining face. It is from inside that its light comes. The wise man knew something of this when he wrote, “A merry heart does good like a medicine” (Prov. 17:22).
And wherein lies the secret of a merry heart? It is not found in the worldling. His gaiety is forced, “as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool” (Ecc. 6:6). His merriment is not spontaneous. It is dependent on his circumstances.
On the contrary, the Christian’s joy is independent of his circumstances and often in spite of them. In the environment of a Roman prison, and with the prospect of a martyr’s death, Paul wrote his famous exhortations to the Philippian believers: “Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord” (chap. 3:1); “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.”
But though the shining face comes from inside it does not come by way of introspection. No, it is unconscious. To observe it in a looking-glass is to destroy it. Self-consciousness is fatal.
We read, “And it came to pass when Moses … came down from the mount, that Moses WIST NOT that the face of his skin shone while he talked with Him [Jehovah]” (Ex. 34:29).
Ah! here we get the secret—occupation not with ourselves, not with our blessings, not with our service, but
OCCUPATION WITH HIMSELF—
not by the way of introspection and effort to conform ourselves to what we would like to be, but by gazing on the Lord in glory. The shining face comes by transformation, by the heart beholding the glory of the Lord.
Oh! the exquisite delight Moses experienced when for the moment he talked with the Lord. The pattern of things in the tabernacle formed the subject of their conversation. But this pattern spoke only and altogether of Christ—the glory of His person, the perfection of His work, the standing in blessing He would confer on the believer through Him. And further, if these were the shadows, Moses stood in the presence of the Substance. If these were the types, the glorious Antitype stood before him,
And in all the glory of that presence, no wonder that his face shone.
Centuries have rolled by. Moses has passed away, and his dispensation too. The Substance has come. Christ has come. All the glory of God is revealed in the face of Him who died on Calvary’s cross. One favoured individual—Moses—had the wonderful privilege of that interview on Sinai’s mount. Now every Christian has a privilege more wonderful than even Moses had: “We ALL, looking on the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory, even as by [the] Lord [the] Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18).
What glory is on His face! His is indeed THE shining face. His is like the sun’s, shining in its own strength; ours, indeed, is like the moon’s, borrowed light, so that we cannot glory in ourselves, but in Him. Wonderful glory that can effect such transformation! What do we know of it? “He that glories let Him glory in the Lord” (1 Cor. 1:31).
May writer and reader know it more and more.